Coming Soon.........

...........I will be posting my costume gallery sketches.

Costume Gallery Photos

What darling shoes, simply delightful.

This bag has obvious design links to Egypt.

The famous Chanel little black dress, the bead work on the dress is fabulous. Unfortunately my photography skills are not.

This is the back of a Norman Hartnell dress which has one again breathtaking bead work. Although his is completely different to the Chanel dress, this is more sumptuous.

This is a perfect example of the 20s trend of emphasising the hips.

The Manchester Costume Gallery

I went on a little trip last week to our lovely costume gallery, it was jam packed which is good but not when your trying to sketch. I have taken some pictures although they havent turned out aswell as I would like. Oh well here are the hats.................

The Cloche Cont....

Actress Vilma Banky wearing a cloche hat, 1927

Actress wearing a cloche hat with the brim folded up, 1930

The Cloche

When we think of the 1920s one hat springs to mind the cloche. "As short hair became more general small close fitting hats were obviously appropriate, and in 1923 the cloche appeared, These hats, with their deep crowns and narrow brims, were pulled down to the eyes, obscuring half the wearer's face and all her hair with the exception of a curl or two on either cheek. Trimming, flat and rather restrained, consisted usually of ribbon or material in contrasting colours" ( I will have a bibliography at the end)
The cloche is a contrast to the hats worn before the war, simple and elegant without the fuss of piles of exotic birds and plenty of trims. It went hand in hand with the rest of the early 20s fashions, women wore straight flat dresses that focused on the hips. They emphasised the hips with embroidery, sashed, ruffles or with hip length jackets. As the design of these dresses was so simple pattern and prints were very important, designers took inspiration from Japanese Kimonos. These dresses were often heavily embelished with beads and sequins.
Although in the later half of the decade possibly due to the popularity of Coco Chanel's simple sportswear embelishments from men's clothing became design features on womens clothes. Withs men's clothes its all about the small details, items froms mens clothes that appeared on womens dresses were:

• pockets
• buttons
• belts
• double seams

As well as these details taken from men's clothing other details in this period included:

• Brooches
• Buckles
• Clips

these were worn on hats, lapels, shoes and collars. Other fashion boundaries were broken, once again due to Chanel, fashionable women start to wear black. No longer is it seen as only to be worn when your in morning.

The Roaring Twenties

Social Factors
After WW1 women wanted more practical clothes, more freedom of movement. Women over the age of 30 had gained the right to vote in 1918 (about time I say). There was a mood in the air of recklessness, after the war people felt they could die tomorrow so lets live for today. Women had worked during the war doing so called men's work, women had had to wear clothes that were practical for this purpose. The twenties were highly liberating for women, popular sports included tennis and swimming. Sportswear was born with Chanel at the front of it all with her short hair and practical clothes.

Paul Poiret

I have just started reading Paul Poiret's Biography, he was a key Art Deco fashion designer. He so far seems fabulous, I simply adore his fashion illustrations. I may have to bring the turban back from the grave........

M & S Exhibition Leeds

How it all started, buttons sewn onto card to be sold for a penny.

Key inspirational piece, 1920s pointy shaped bra. This is the start of M&S venture into underwear. Apparently twiggy is a fan.

This apron fabric is Eygptian, I think its fabulous.

This is the 1950s wonder that I was talking about, simply beautiful.

This dressing gown was based on one that Audrey Hepburn wore in Breakfast at Tiffany's. I can just see myself lounging in this. Splendid.

The red dress is one that Shirley Bassey wore for an M&S Christmas advert, I can't get over how tiny she is.

These two pieces are from the M & S 125 year vintage collection, I really like the 1940s tea dress. This is very of the moment.

22nd of February 2010 Starting the Project

I understand I'm a little bit delayed in writing this up already. But stay with me I'm only new to this whole game. Our little group of student milliners went on a trip across the road to Leeds University. There we visited an exhibition marking 125 years of Marks and Spencer, we had a talk from a very enthusiastic lady (she works in the Leeds store accessories dept) she talked us through from the beginning of M&S until now. The exhibition is only very small, but worth a trip. I will post pictures up next, I promise. I was very taken by a beautiful floral 1950s number (what a shock) that was very much of the Christian Dior new look style.
If you are following this you will gather that I have a love of all things vintage and mostly the 1940s/50s. For my last project I looked at the 1940s and I used my Grandma as my muse/model. Once I received this project back photos will follow.
We glemmed a few tit bits of information from our talk, that the M&S archive is moving from London to Leeds next year. So this means that if your a fashion student looking for inspiration from the past you can go there and look at an original piece of that era. I am chomping at the bit to get in there already.
Keep your eyes peeled for photos to follow and my next post which will be all about tiny books and eating too much chocolate.

Welcome to Blogger

Well this is all strangly new to me, the world of blogs. Well through this blog I am going to look at the history of millinery.......My word I hear you cry how will you have the time??! Fear not I am just going to be looking at the 1920s. I do think it is a good idea to know about what has gone before. I may have a fabulous idea for a hat with a cupcake on that unfortunatly has been done before (this has happened) so it is worthwhile to know about a design history. So lets get started...........